The imposing Pitti Palace, several blocks southwest of Ponte Vecchio, has many separate museums and two gardens.
The main reason to visit is to see the Palatine Gallery, which houses a fine painting collection that picks up where the Uffizi leaves off, with the High Renaissance.
Lovers of Raphael’s Madonnas and Titian’s portraits will find some of the world’s best of each. If it’s a nice day, take a stroll in the Boboli Gardens, a rare and inviting patch of extensive green space within old Florence.
In the Palatine Gallery you’ll walk through one palatial room after another, with walls sagging with masterpieces by 16th and 17th century masters, including Titian and Rembrandt.
The Pitti’s Raphael collection is the second-biggest anywhere – the Vatican beats it by one.
The collection is all on one floor. To see the highlight’s, walk straight down the spine through a dozen or so rooms.
After the Palatine Gallery, the route flows naturally into the even more lavish rooms of the Royal Apartments.
These 14 rooms (of which only a few are open at any one time) are where the Pitti’s rulers lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Each room features a different color and time period. Here, you get a real feel for the splendor of the duke’s world.
Lots of art… lots of gold gilding. This is a spot that if I ever went to Florence again… I’d probably skip it.
